On Tuesday, a group of truckers and union members descended on Sacramento, California, to ask state officials to act to ban driverless trucks.
Teamsters organized a convoy that traveled from Los Angeles into Sacramento on Tuesday for a rally at the State Capitol building to demand that California Governor Gavin Newsom sign AB 316, effectively banning driverless trucks from California roadways.
Teamsters argue that driverless trucks are a threat to workers and to highway safety.
As part of the rally, Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien got behind the wheel of a big rig. You can check out video of O’Brien trucking below.
Back behind the wheel of the rig…Once a truck driver, always a truck driver #TeamsterProud pic.twitter.com/vnBoH5dsXC
— Sean M. O'Brien (@TeamsterSOB) September 20, 2023
AB 316 was passed by the California Senate earlier this month and only awaits Newsom’s signature to be passed into law.
While California law currently allows for the testing and operation of autonomous vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds without a human driver physically inside the vehicle, AB 316 would address this by “prohibit[ing] the operation of an autonomous vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or more on public roads for testing purposes, transporting goods, or transporting passengers without a human safety operator physically present in the autonomous vehicle at the time of operation.”
AB 316 was introduced in the California Legislature on January 23, 2023, by Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.